


What Friendship Isn't

by certain_as_the_sun



Series: How to Train Your God of Mischief [9]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Background Character Death, Gen, Hiccup is Not Happy, Loki that is not what "protecting your friends" means
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-12 13:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10492428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/certain_as_the_sun/pseuds/certain_as_the_sun
Summary: Loki will do anything to protect Hiccup. This is a problem.





	

**Author's Note:**

> The next story in this series was supposed to have Hiccup and Loki being happy after the last story. Instead, I made them more miserable. Writing this took ages. It simply did not want to be written (hence the abrupt ending; I tried and tried to make it longer but it _would not co-operate_ ), and I know it shows in the finished version.
> 
> The idea for this comes from a comment on _Dead Leaves and Fleeting Skies_. This happens some time after _Mortality_.

The day began so well. Astrid had taken to ignoring Loki. Valka had started a class on caring for dragons, something similar to Hiccup's dragon academy. Hiccup could finally have a conversation with Loki without the shadow of Iðunn's apples and Loki's deception hanging over them. Things were peaceful enough in Berk that Hiccup left Astrid and Valka in charge and went flying with Loki.

Neither of them expected the net that shot up from the forest.

 

* * *

 

 

Loki awoke to pain. Thor had taken up residence in his skull and was hammering to get out. Loki's vision was blurry. Something was wrapped around his wings and legs. All in all, this situation bore a striking resemblance to the first time he met Hiccup.

He awoke enough to realise the hammering was a pounding headache and the "something" was a net. That woke him up fully. Why was he in a net, and where was Hiccup?

The sound of voices reached his ears. He twisted his head around to see where they were coming from. A group of men were gathered around a fire. They were using tree branches to beat something lying on the ground.

A dragon would have been hopelessly trapped by the net. It was just as well Loki wasn't a dragon. He returned to his Æsir form and stepped out of the net. He picked it up and started towards the men. A close look made the situation all too clear. The men wore the outfits of Drago's soldiers. They had Hiccup gagged and tied up, and they were beating him.

Burning rage took hold of Loki. That was _his_ human. He would kill them for this!

He magically enlarged the net and threw it at the men. It wrapped around all of them. He pulled. The net and its contents shot into the air. While the men screamed and panicked, Loki cast a spell to hold the net in place and keep them in it, then went to free Hiccup.

What he saw made him even angrier, and the slim chance the men would walk away alive disappeared. There were bruises all over Hiccup's face. His lip was cut and bleeding. The ropes around his arms and legs were tied as tightly as possible. He shuddered and flinched away from Loki's touch.

Loki quickly untied him, picturing all the ways he could kill the men. The tree branches lay scattered where the men had dropped them. Once Hiccup was free Loki magically animated them. They obligingly started beating the trapped men as viciously as the men had beaten Hiccup.

"Loki?" Hiccup asked dazedly. "Glad you're safe. Was so worried when I couldn't..." He trailed off with a groan.

"I am well," Loki assured him. "Rest; I will deal with these creatures."

Loki waved his hand and the branches fell to the earth. Now, how should he kill them? Dragon fire had much to recommend it. Or perhaps he would place a spell on them to trick each of them into thinking the others were wild animals, and let them kill each other. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. He would have to remove Hiccup from the vicinity first, of course.

"Whas hap'ning?" Hiccup asked woozily, trying to sit up.

"Rest," Loki repeated, picking him up and carrying him back to where the god had woken up. "You need not worry about it."

"What don't I need to worry about?" Hiccup twisted in his arms. He blinked. "Am I dreaming, or is there really a flying fishing net behind us?"

"You're dreaming," Loki said shortly. He suspected Hiccup would not be happy if he knew what he had planned.

He set the boy down beneath a tree. "Go to sleep. I will return as quickly as possible."

He didn't think to use any magic beyond a slight trace of a sleeping spell. He thought Hiccup would sleep until his return from sheer exhaustion. In hindsight, he should have known better.

 

* * *

 

It was pitifully easy to convince each human they were surrounded by wolves and bears and other monsters no one would ever want to meet while alone and unarmed. They were already frightened and angry from the net and the branches. Some of them attacked their companions. Others ran away screaming. Loki's throwing knives put an abrupt halt to their escape attempts.

" _What are you doing_?"

Loki almost groaned. Why wasn't Hiccup asleep?

"I am dealing with criminals," he said with a dismissive wave. "Go back to sleep."

"Stop!" Hiccup grabbed his arm as he prepared to throw a knife at a fleeing man. "Stop it now!"

Loki tried to pull his arm from his grasp. He failed. Hiccup _would not let go_.

"I promised I wouldn't let anyone hurt you!" Loki exclaimed, exasperated. The soldiers were running in all directions, now. He would have to go looking for them and kill them more quickly. "Would you have me break that promise?"

"I don't want you to keep it like this!" Hiccup still clung to Loki's arm. His grip was so tight it might take a crowbar to remove him. "You've scared them, so let them go! I'm sure they won't do it again! There's no need to kill them!"

"Tell me, when will you agree there is need to kill them? When they rejoin their friends? When they attack Berk? When they kill our friends, the people _you_ are supposed to protect? Will you agree I should have killed them then, _Chief_?"

Loki regretted that last comment the moment it was out of his mouth. Hiccup stilled. He stared at the god, his face very pale. Then he let go of Loki's arm and punched him in the face. It _hurt_. Loki's headache returned in full force, and blood spurted from his nose.

"I'm sorry. But you deserved that," Hiccup said. He wouldn't look at him.

"I did," Loki agreed quietly. "Hiccup, I'm sorry-"

"Let's go home."

Loki glanced at the human. He winced. The last time Hiccup had looked so furious and miserable was after he found out about the apples.

 

* * *

 

Loki revised his opinion. Hiccup had never been this furious and miserable with him, not even after the apples. Every time the boy saw him, be it in dragon or Æsir form, he would ignore him. If Loki spoke to him he would pretend not to hear.

Hiccup had gone to talk to a villager about his sheep getting into someone's house. Valka was out... somewhere or other. Loki sat on the "nest" where his dragon form slept and did not feel guilty. He might have wished things hadn't turned out like this, but he most definitely _did not_ feel guilty. At all.

Astrid made her presence felt with a sharp slap to his head.

"What have you done now?" she demanded.

He made a show of rubbing his head and glaring balefully at her. "Mind your own business."

She slapped him again. He thought briefly that she would get along well with Thor's mortal. Both women liked hitting gods, be it with vehicles or fists.

"I tried to keep a promise."

Astrid made a sound somewhere between a groan and a growl. It was remarkable how much disbelief, disdain and general dislike she could convey while not saying anything. "You've done something, and you will put it right or I will spend the next thousand years making your life unbearable."

"How do you intend to do that?" Loki asked skeptically.

"I'll think of something." She turned to leave.

"I didn't mean to hurt him," Loki said quietly, more to himself than her. "I would do anything to protect him."

Astrid pursed her lips. "I know. That's the problem."

 

* * *

 

When faced with a choice between talking to Hiccup or putting up with an angry, immortal Astrid for the foreseeable future, Loki decided the first option would be, if not the least painful, then at least it would be over more quickly. With this in mind, he confronted Hiccup at dinner.

"Hiccup." The boy continued eating, utterly ignoring him. "Hiccup. Hiccup!"

"Are you going to apologise?" It was the first Hiccup had said to him since their return, and he still wouldn't look at the god.

"Yes, if it will make you happy."

"Happy? You _killed_ some of those men. If you killed them in a battle I wouldn't mind, but you didn't even give them a chance to defend themselves."

Loki was about to point out that "not giving them a chance to defend themselves" was the point; they hadn't given _Hiccup_ a chance to defend himself. But the aim of this conversation was to make things better, not worse.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, as meekly as he was able to.

Hiccup gave him a suspicious look. "Never, ever do something like that again. I don't need protected, and I certainly don't need you going around murdering people in the name of "protecting" me."

Loki sighed. "I won't."

Hiccup stared at him silently for an uncomfortably long time. "I wish I could believe you."

He got up and went upstairs. Loki was left to wonder how he had managed to so spectacularly ruin the first true friendship he had.


End file.
